Pandemic Readiness and DMS: Swine Flu 2009

DMS has released a POD and Pandemic File for our current customers.

Any customers needing immediate assistance should call 860-287-7221 or 860-287-7223 or 203-676-4182.
This software tracks distribution of your SNS inventory of Tamiflu and Relenza.
It also will track your POD patients, as well as any current suspected cases of Swine Flu as well as confirmed cases.

For those customers wishing to track and report in excel format, this ability exists within the server version of FirstTrak and can be activated by customer service.

Thank you.

DMS

Tags: Disaster Management Solutions, DMS, Inventory, kirchberg-schmitt, mass casualty, MCI, pandemic preparedness, POD, Relenza, service, swine flu, Tamiflu

The Great Shakeout After Action Report Commentary

excerpt taken from DMS After Action Report:

DMS participant commentary

Kim Kirchberg-Schmitt
Strike Team Leader, LAFD Project Manager

The goal of this exercise for me was to get the units in the hands of a few of the members of the department, and to expose the LAFD to the EPTS they have invested in. This project I expect will be an ongoing effort of several members of both the department, as well as DMS. With the recent fires and train disasters, it seems that the natural progression would be to slowly expand the awareness of the system first, and then attempt to install and deliver it to those who will be ultimately responsible for patient tracking.
I was extremely pleased with the LAFD’s involvement and commitment to this test of the system, and felt that the drill was a success from both a technology perspective as well as a human one. Without the support of key individuals who were obviously prepared ahead of time with information and an objective, I don’t believe the test would have been met with such enthusiasm and acceptance. All of the patients that were appropriately funneled through the choke point created at the East Gate area were scanned and tracked using the system, and even those who were not given a bar-coded tag were able to be tracked with ease by rapid manual entry of their triage tag ID.
The drill was intended to have an element of surprise for many of the responders and I felt this contributed to the ultimate success of the test. The natural flow of an incident is never one without bottlenecks, but the ability to identify those bottlenecks and put them to productive use (gathering more specific patient data such as name, gender, DOB, and photos) was one that evolved as the exercise progressed.
At the end of the incident, being able to give the total counts to the PIO staff within a few minutes was clearly representative of the hard work and dedication of the participants, as well as the functionality and usability of the system overall.

Tags: After action report, California, disaster, Disaster Management Solutions, Drills, EMS, EMT, Fire Department, Golden Guardian, Great Shake Out, kirchberg-schmitt, LA Fire Department, LinkedIn, mass casualty, MCI, Paramedic, Patient Tracking, response, strike team, tracking, train crash, transport, treatment, Triage

The Aftermath of Gustav and Ike

As posted on the The Military Health System Blog

Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - Hurricanes Ike and Gustav
Posted by: Colonel Donald L. Noah

In the wake of hurricanes Gustav and Ike, Air Force Col. Donald L. Noah, chief of staff for Force Health Protection and Readiness, weighs in with lessons learned from the military’s response to these storms.

Hurricanes Ike and Gustav:
Real-Life Application of the Joint Force Health Protection CONOPS

The winds of hurricanes Gustav and Ike have died down but work in the aftermath goes on. Part of that work is assessing what assistance was provided by the Military Health System (MHS), what went right and wrong with that assistance, and how we can do better in the future. One thing is for sure, in addition to all the other missions of the MHS, hurricanes will keep coming and we will keep being requested to assist.

What does hurricane response have to do with the Joint Force Health Protection concept of operations (JFHP CONOPS)? Plenty! Although I’ve only recently studied the JFHP CONOPS, I’ll bet very few of you have—largely due to the fact that it was only recently drafted and published. As a very brief primer, JFHP is organized into six functional focus areas:

1. Human performance enhancement
2. Health surveillance, intelligence, and preventive medicine
3. Command and control
4. Patient movement
5. Casualty management
6. Medical logistics and infrastructure support

Simply put, the JFHP CONOPS examines the future warfighting context and characteristics of the future joint force in order to characterize future required medical capabilities. As I read through the CONOPS document, having recently returned from an on-site visit to the hurricane response area, I saw how effectively the document is organized and how it lays out a process for continual improvement for all types of missions, from the War on Terror to responding to disasters in CONUS.

Alright, enough of the CONOPS lead-in—back to the hurricane situation. Here is a summary of what we did, how well we did it, and how we can do better in the future:

What the MHS provided

· Leadership advice and guidance. Through the NORTHCOM Surgeon’s office, we have a nationwide array of 14 Joint Regional Medical Plans officers (JRMPOs). All available JRMPOs were mobilized to coordinate and synchronize state and Federal ESF-8 capabilities.

· Patient movement. Both within and without the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), aeromedical evacuation units from Active Duty and Air National Guard units moved approximately 473 non-ambulatory patients out of harm’s way.

· Medical support to general evacuation effort. The Air Force’s San Antonio-based 59th Medical Wing provided medical screening and emergent care to the thousands of people evacuated from the landfall areas.

· Medical logistics. Through the ARNORTH emergency operations center in San Antonio, the right military medical materiel was provided to the right place at the right time.

What went right

· The JRMPOs provided the unique “glue” that bound the interagency effort. During my trip to Texas between the hurricanes, every single agency representative I met requested more of these valuable officers.

· The Texas Military Forces, ably led in the medical context by Joint Surgeon Colonel (Dr.) Connie McNabb, proved capable of augmenting—and in many cases, replacing—Federal response assets.

· Personal initiative at all levels effectively erased policy shortfalls and ensured that patients were moved safely and quickly.

· Operational communication between military medical response experts at all levels (e.g., OSD, NORTHCOM, ARNORTH, and Texas Military Forces) provided effective situational awareness.

What went wrong

· The NDMS does seem adequately user-friendly to state and local medical officials. Additionally, it does not apply to non-ambulatory patients in facilities other than hospitals (e.g., nursing homes and hospice care). Therefore, I believe we dodged a bullet so far in this hurricane season; our success is as much due to the relatively small numbers of patients requiring evacuation rather than to the effectiveness of the system.

· Medical response policies of certain interagency partners (e.g., DoD/TRANSCOM, HHS/NDMS, and DHS/FEMA) are not sufficiently interoperable to ensure seamless operations.

How can we improve?

· First, and perhaps most important, we need to ensure that our DoD response policies are coordinated with all agencies, both internal and external to DoD.

· We also need to lean forward to proactively work with our interagency partners on improving Federal policies. A salient example is patient movement. Whether by air, rail or bus, and whether by NDMS or non-NDMS assets, we need to do a better job of preparing to respond.

As of this writing, we are already taking steps to move out on plans improvement. Dr. Casscells and Ms. Embrey have empowered us to host several meetings to lead this process of policy integration. The first will be an After-Action Review of senior action officers of the MHS to identify issues and workable solutions, whether in the domains of doctrine, policy, operational guidance, or training. The second meeting will include our intergovernmental partners to review, revise, and integrate Federal policies and guidances to operationalize those improvements before the next hurricane season.

To conclude, I must briefly return to the JFHP CONOPS document. Its central theme is Protect the Force, Enhance the Mission. That’s a deceptively simple statement—one that elegantly sums up the strategic objective of all military medical forces. If I’ve been successful in anything during this blog entry, it’s that 1) the MHS provides a unique and vital service to our country—as was demonstrated during our response to the hurricanes, 2) no matter how good we are at providing that service, we can always do better, and 3) the Joint Force Health Protection CONOPS document is an excellent reference in understanding your role in the MHS and how you can contribute to its improvement. I’m attaching the document for those who are (or should be) interested.

Tags: Ambulance, Disaster Management Solutions, Disaster Response Team, DMS, EMS, EMT, Gustav, hurricane, Ike, Katrina, Paramedic

An Interesting Paramedic Blog

http://theparamedicsdiary.blogspot.com/

This fellow is from London, England, where they currently use the SMART traige tags and system.

We use the system here in Connecticut, and they also use it as the state standard in North Carolina as well.  I am sure it has reached to other places, but these are just two I have run into personally.

Tags: Disaster Management Solutions, Disaster Response, Drills, mass casualty incident, SMART, Triage

Nursing Homes Detail Evac Process

la_nursing_homes_hospitals_move_patients.avi

I found this video to be interesting.

Tags: Ambulance, Communications, disaster, Disaster Management Solutions, Disaster Response Team, DMS, Drills, evacuation, evacuees, Gustav, Hannah, hurricane, Ike, Incident Communication Solutions, LaserBand, Louisiana, Memphis, New Orleans, Packing, Paramedic, patient, Planning, readiness, response, Team, Tennessee

Why on Earth is Patient Tracking Important, you ask?

 

Because for every injured person, there is someone who cares. A family, a friend, a coworker, a parent, an aunt, a daughter, a Pastor, a teacher, a neighbor, a spouse.

After attending NIMS ICS 100-400 this spring, I found myself wondering why there was no Patient Tracking Officer in the fancy Organizational chart they had…

It occured to me also that the number one person that is asking me for information usually is not the IC, but the PIO, otherwise known as the Public Information Officer. Oh, once in a while an IC will want to know the details of the reds, yellows, and greens. But at the heart of the matter is the patients themselves, and their family members, who seem to show up far quicker than they could have during regular times. And as these families clamor around, seeking answers, will you be able to provide them?

I found some videos today while I was preparing a new training program I am writing that I thought I should share, I will post them here.

Tags: Ambulance, Communications, disaster, Disaster Management Solutions, Disaster Response Team, DMS, Drills, evacuation, evacuees, Gustav, Hannah, hurricane, Ike, Incident Communication Solutions, LaserBand, Louisiana, Memphis, New Orleans, Packing, Paramedic, patient, Planning, readiness, response, Team, Tennessee

For your FYI

My daughter went through a period where she would say this phrase at the beginning of every sentence. It was very cute and has now caught on in our house as a kind of “catch phrase” as well as an inside joke.

I tend to use it at work a lot to disarm people when they are getting too serious, and luckily, that hasn’t been the case with this deployment.  I do want to take a little time to make a few observations though about Gustav and the ensuing calamity that has occured now that there have been over 10,000 patients moved within a week period, thousands of evacuees moved all over the country, and multiple services, both volunteer, paid, FEMA funded or other that have entered, left, reentered a small and challenging part of our country, or received these people into their communities.

I personally saw at least four different tracking systems being used. All were redundant at least somewhat in nature.

Many EMA officials had no idea what the other tracking systems were, how to access them, or how to share data with them.

Several agencies with their own internal registration and tracking policies refused to work with other agencies, creating a large gap in communication and the ability to information-share among trusted networks. (and I’m referring to PEOPLE networks, not Computer ones).

I think that proper education and training are the keys to ensuring that things go more smoothly next time, and that hopefully, as we continue to learn and grow, so will the systems we use and develop to help us care for those in need more succinctly.

Tags: Ambulance, Communications, disaster, Disaster Management Solutions, Disaster Response Team, DMS, Drills, evacuation, evacuees, Gustav, Hannah, hurricane, Ike, Incident Communication Solutions, LaserBand, Louisiana, Memphis, New Orleans, Packing, Paramedic, patient, Planning, readiness, response, Team, Tennessee

Back to Louisiana

Here I was, thinking I was getting to go home.  I am headed back down to Louisiana, this time with the ProMed Ambulance crews, one of the finest bunch of people I have gotten to meet in the EMS business, and certainly the hardest working.  Our tech department back home was monitoring all of our servers this week and commented on the lack of downtime these crews were taking for themselves, instead working to get the critical patients to safety as quickly as possible.  LSU certainly is lucky to have them along with the crews from numerous other companies.  I only got to meet a few of them, but those I did I will name here-

ASAP Ambulance, from Mississippi, Eagle, I am pretty sure they are from Memphis, LifeCare, LifeTeam, and of course, ProMed, who sent trucks from Knoxville (another place close to our hearts here at DMS), Nashville area, and Memphis.

We will caravan down (I will get left in the dust as I drive like a grandmother these days…) and set up shop wherever we can find accomodations for the crews. It’s going to be tough.

Tags: Ambulance, ASAP Ambulance, Communications, disaster, Disaster Management Solutions, Disaster Response Team, DMS, Drills, evacuation, evacuees, Gustav, Hannah, hurricane, Ike, Incident Communication Solutions, LaserBand, Louisiana, Memphis, New Orleans, Packing, Paramedic, patient, Planning, ProMed, readiness, response, Team, Tennessee